Petro-Canada layoffs 200 oilsands workers

[urban.one]

Petro-Canada begins layoffs of 200 workers relating to oilsands project


By Dina O'Meara, Calgary Herald
April 15, 2009 10:59 AMBe the first to post a comment

Petro-Canada has started laying off up to 200 full-time employees in its oilsands division specifically related to its stalled Fort Hills project, the Herald has learned.

The company, which announced last month it was merging with oilsands giant Suncor, confirmed the layoffs started yesterday and are expected to continue over the week.

"Looking ahead there's going to be less and less work and we're in a situation where, unfortunately, we have more people than we have work," Petro-Canada spokeswoman Kelli Steven told the Herald.


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[Redlyne_mr2]

The layoffs are a result of the merger, unavoidable unfortunately.

[Euro838]

These layoffs are not really a result of the merger, those are still to come. Obviously with the merger, they have decided to halt the Forthills project but does not mean they may not have done it anyways with the market conditions.

In addition to the 200 employees, there's also an additional 50-100 contractors too.

Can't really blame them, they were burning like $15 Mil a month on Oilsands with no big projects. Something had to give.

[Xtrema]

The merger lay off will come in Sep.

These ones are decided pre merger.

[adam c]

i thought PC was protected so it couldn't be taken over or merged?

[luv2ride_bikes]

Originally posted by adam c
i thought PC was protected so it couldn't be taken over or merged?

This is called the Petro-Canada act, which states that no single shareholder can own more than 20% of the shares. They are getting around this by creating a new company, which is still called Suncor.

This is a plan of arrangement to create a new company that will be broadly held, with no single shareholder having more than 20%. Shares held today by Petro-Canada and Suncor shareholders will be exchanged based on the valuation formula we have described into shares in the new company.
A new Board of Directors and new management comprised of a mix of the Boards and management from Petro-Canada and Suncor will be put in place, representing the shareholders.